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Boulder County Republicans fill a pair of slots in their primary election ballots

By John Fryar

Times-Call staff writer

Posted:
03/29/2014 03:57:25 PM MDT

Updated:
03/30/2014 09:12:29 AM MDT

Undeterred by more than a decade of Boulder County Democratic dominance of local elections, two Republicans stepped forward on Saturday to declare their candidacies for several of the offices to be filled this year.

Boulder County voter registration

As of March 10, according to the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder's website, the 246,555 total voters on the county's registration rolls included:

Democratic: 99,238 voters, 40.2 percent of the total

Unaffiliated with any state-recognized political party: 97,313 voters, 39.5 percent

Republican: 45,920 voters, 18.6 percent

Libertarian: 2,370 voters, about 1 percent

Green Party: 1,431 voters, about 0.6 percent

American Constitution Party: 283 voters, about 0.1 percent

Longmont resident Charlie Plagainos - the unsuccessful GOP candidate in the 2012 contest for eastern Boulder County state Senate District 17 seat - volunteered to be the Boulder County Republican Assembly's nominee in this year's race for the House District 11 seat held by Longmont Democrat Jonathan Singer.

John Wardle, a technology support specialist who lives in Boulder, decided on Saturday to run against incumbent state Rep. Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Gunbarrel, for the House District 10 seat.

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More than 250 delegates showed up to Saturday's meeting at Longmont's Best Western Plaza conference center to fill in blanks on the GOP voters' June 24 primary ballots for Boulder County-based legislative seats and county government posts. Republican candidates still have time to emerge - but not much time.

A Colorado House District 12 vacancy committee will now have until April 17 to recruit a candidate to face off against incumbent state Rep. Mike Foote, D-Lafayette.

Plagainos (File photo/Times-Call)

And the Boulder County Republican Central Committee, acting as a vacancy committee, will also have until then to name candidates for the offices of District 3 county commissioner, county sheriff, county coroner, county treasurer, county assessor, county clerk and recorder and county surveyor.

"The vacancy committee is going to be very busy," predicted Boulder County Republican chairwoman Ellyn Hilliard

Wardle, 30, said he made "a spur-of-the-moment decision" to run for the House District 10 seat on Saturday.

Wardle said he concluded it was important to get involved in the political process this year and was named during the precinct caucus earlier this month to be a delegate to the county assembly.

Singer (File photo/Times-Call)

"I had no intention of running until I realized there was no one else running," Wardle said. "I decided to go for it."

Plagainos, 65, told the Times-Call before the House District 11 delegates met that "if no one else has the guts to stand up against the Democrats, I will."

Plagainos told the House District 11 delegates that while "I got pounded last time," in the state Senate contest won by Louisville Democrat Matt Jones, he's willing to run again, this time for a House seat.

Plagainos said that as a state lawmaker, "I'd basically want to cut down on what I call silly spending." He said that would include opposing bills that propose state services or programs "that are redundant with what the federal government already does," or that would duplicate "what the state is already doing."

Singer, who was kicking off his own reelection campaign with an event at the Dickens Tavern in downtown Longmont on Saturday afternoon, said, "I really like Charlie, actually."

Singer said he'll refuse to call Plagainos his "opponent" in the House District 11 contest, the same as he considered Hilliard - the Republican candidate Singer beat in the 2012 election for the seat - to be "a challenger" and a "competitor," rather than an opponent.

Singer said that as far as he's concerned, he and Plagainos "are not running against each other. We're running for the district."

Another Boulder Republican, real estate developer Dan Egeland, stepped forward just before the mid-afternoon conclusion of the county GOP assembly meeting to say he'd run for Boulder County Clerk and Recorder, which would have pitted him against incumbent Democrat Hillary Hall.

But Egeland dropped out of the race several hours later, after learning that while he's lived in Colorado about three years, the fact he's only lived in Boulder County for about two months apparently make him ineligible.

"I'll still be involved as much as I can be" in politics and the community, Egeland said.

The dearth of people willing to become county government or state legislative candidates at Saturday's GOP assembly wasn't a surprise to several of the veteran political activists present.

Hilliard said "it's hard for people to put in the kind of time and money" that candidacy for such offices requires.

"I think people have to really think it through," Hilliard said, adding that "you give up nearly a year of your life to run."

Another disincentive, she said, is Boulder County's voter registration numbers. Only about 19 percent of the voters currently on county registration rolls are Republicans, about 40 percent are Democrats.

While nearly 40 percent of the county's registered voters are officially unaffiliated with any political party, the votes of those so-called "independents" often splits along the same percentages as party members, said former Boulder County GOP chairman Joel Champion.

County Republicans "are beginning to believe it's too big a hassle" to run for office, said Champion, who himself volunteered at the county GOP's 2010 assembly to be its candidate for county assessor.

"I enjoyed it. It was fun," Champion said of his contest against Jerry Roberts, who won that election four years ago and is seeking reelection this year.

"It was a fair fight, and that was the end of it," Champion said of the 2010 assessor's race.

When asked if he'd be willing to run again for assessor or for one of the other offices up for election this year, though, Champion said: "Heavens, no."

One of Saturday's assembly participants was Sandy Hume, the last Republican to hold an elected Boulder County government post. Hume was a Boulder County commissioner from 1991 through 1994 and the county treasurer from 1995 through 2002.

Asked on Saturday whether he expected any of the Republicans there to step forward to become county government candidates, Hume said: "No way that's going to happen."

Hume declined to say why he thought there was such a shortage of Republicans willing to seek county or state legislative posts. But he's said in the past that one problem for the GOP base was when Broomfield became its own city and county in 2001, shifting much of Boulder County's Republican base into Broomfield.

Helping check delegates into Saturday's assembly was former state Rep. Bill Swenson of Longmont, who was the last Republican to fill a Boulder County-based seat in the state Legislature. Swenson served in the Colorado House from 1995 through 2002.

Swenson also cited "the numbers game" that gives Democratic candidates their current advantage in voter registration tallies in Boulder County - although he added that there are some Colorado politicians "who are Democrats in name only, just to get elected."

Also, in the past decade "we've had issues within the party" that can sometimes "give you problems" if a candidate doesn't pass "some people's litmus test" for the policy positions they expect a Republican to hold.

Deciding to run for office "is a significant step," said Swenson, who advised that anyone considering a candidacy should "evaluate how well you're known, whether you have a base, and the money to do it."

At least a couple of prominent converts to Republicanism participated in Saturday's assembly - onetime Libertarian Bo Shaffer and former Democratic Boulder County Commissioner Paul Danish.

Shaffer, an unincorporated eastern Boulder County resident who's run twice for sheriff, once for county commissioner and once for state Senate, said he doesn't intend to offer himself up as a GOP candidate for any of the offices in this year's election.

"I'd rather support one than be one," Shaffer said.

Danish, who served as a county commissioner from 1995 through early 2005, said that if anyone wants to run for that office now, "you'd better run as a libertarian, with a small 'l.'"

But Danish also said the time may be coming when Democrats can no longer automatically count on winning countywide races or legislative district contests.

"Democrats are getting to the point where their expiration date is getting pretty close," said Danish, who's now a Longmont resident.

Ballot language:
In November, Boulder voters narrowly approved two ballot issues related to starting a municipal utility: 2B and 2C. You can read the full text of the ballot language on the city's website.

Issue 2B asked voters to increase the existing utility occupation tax by up to $1.9 million a year. The money from the tax, which will be collected from customers by Xcel Energy, will be used by the city to cover the costs of moving forward with forming a municipal utility, such as more studies and legal fees.

Issue 2C asked voters for permission to actually form a municipal utility. The language allows the city to sell the necessary bonds to take over the current system from Xcel, but it states that the city may only move forward with forming a municipal utility if it can start the utility with rates that are the same or cheaper than Xcel's.

Helpful Links:City of Boulder: This is where the city is aggregating all of its documents, meeting information and updates on Boulder s energy future: bouldercolorado.gov/energyfuture

RenewablesYes: This website is run by the group of volunteers that lobbied local voters to pass a utility occupation tax in November to replace the expiring franchise fee from Xcel Energy. Now, the group is advocating for the city to secure a cleaner, more local energy supply. renewablesyes.org

Xcel Energy: Xcel is the largest utility in Colorado, and it currently provides electricity to Boulder. The city s 20-year franchise agreement with Xcel expired at the end of 2010. xcelenergy.com

Boulder Smart Energy Coalition: A citizen group that supports the city's general energy goals but has concerns about the risks involved with starting a municipal utility. bouldersec.com

SmartGridCity: Xcel Energy has installed a smart grid in Boulder. This web site provides more information on that initiative. smartgridcity.xcelenergy.com

Colorado Association of Municipal Utilities: This Colorado Springs-based group represents the state s 29 municipal utilities, which include utilities based in Lyons and Longmont. coloradopublicpower.org